aureliejc

I chose not to fly first class…..

But I was honored to sit next to a precious soul that explained she hadn’t flown in 10 years, had been up since 2 a.m. checking on their livestock and couldn’t figure out how to make her seatbelt work. Her son’s 60th birthday was this weekend and she was going to Seattle for his suprise party. I fastened her seat belt and whispered, “thank you, God, for reserving me this seat…..”

I missed the Northern Lights…..

At 9:15 p.m., the Big Easy gave me an astounding light show from the city lights. On final approach, I marvelled at 2 barges lazily floating down the Mississippi River decorated as if it was a Christmas evening.

I didn’t get the BMW…. AND I waited in line 2 hours at the car rental facility.

At midnight I rode the escalator to another chaotic scene with angry individuals and disillusioned travellers waiting for their vehicle. I chased down a young man lining up rental cars and doing his best to accommodate the humanity before him. “Sir!, sir! (waving my rental agreement at him) What do I do with this?” He pointed at a vehicle and said, “Do you want this one?” It could have been a Prius and I would have said yes. It didn’t get past me that I drove off and left the others silently standing on the curb with their rental agreements in their hand.

As I locked the car in my parent’s driveway, I noticed it was a 4-Runner.

My neice was to fly in to New Orleans 2 hours after I landed. I planned to wait at her gate and do some writing or lesson planning. Her flight was then delayed. It was her first time flying and my brother was a slight bit (hmmmmm, let me find a word to describe him…. unnerved).

My text to Karly, “Oh, perfect!, I will make a reservation in the City and we will go for beignets tomorrow.”

My phone ran out of battery while in line at the rental facility.

I used the time to study each person in line— there were 47—- and assign an occupation to each one.

Karly’s flight was cancelled.

My response? NO PROBLEM…. Romans 8:28 has you covered on this one. You didn’t want to be on that aircraft anyway! Reroute your flight to land in Gulfport!

A spirited pick up driver on I-10 East decided to NOT be a deliverer of grace and forced me to exit the interstate.

I grabbed a bite to eat at the nearest drive thru before getting back on the dark road to Gulfport.

I love the ‘art of travel’ I absolutely love the chaos and opportunity to look through a different lens.

I love hearing my name over the p.a. “Will Delta passenger Jo Ann Coates please report to Gate 18B for immediate departure?” (‘Why, yes, yes, I will…. thanks for the reminder!)

I love running late to the airport. “I am sorry ma’am, we have closed the door and you will not be allowed to enter.” (Pefect! I will just check into the nearest hotel and take a nap! Can you rebook me for tomorrow?)

I love a cancelled flight. (I am almost certain I wasn’t meant to be on that flight anyway… afterall, I did reschedule my own flight back in the day and my originally scheduled flight blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland)

I love the unexpected. I watched a grown man have a meltdown yesterday in line at the car rental facility. I thought, “this is totally not worth the melt down… trust me”.

I watched the 1 person… yes… 1 person efficiently work to accommodate all the people waiting for a rental car. There were 10 rental companies and 1 person serving every one of them. Everyone was filtered into 1 line. The man behind me in line said, “This is a disaster!” I told him “oh no, this is not a disaster— I teach high school special education and went to school 1/2 day before flying here…. truly, sir, some might call THAT a disaster! …. but not me…. that will never be me 🙂